This is a much slenderer, though less trailing Briar than Rosa canina; its flowers pale pink, growing in pairs or single, and its fruit large. It also further differs in habit, by not having young shoots sprouting beyond the blossoms, so as to give them the appearance of being axillary; and from Rosa sentriosa of Acharius (Stockholm Transactions) in the fruit being ovate, not globular. The leaves of the shrub are glaucus—peculiarly so in the spring of the year; and with reluctance I relinquish the name given to it in the first edition of this pamphlet, for the less appropriate one of my late friend, Dr. Swartz.

With the help of birds and suckering, Rosa canina has naturalised in some of the more arid parts of southern New Zealand, and it covers some quite large tracts of marginal land. Up until perhaps thirty years ago, a local manufacturing company sought to buy the ripe hips of this rose from the public, for the purpose of making a syrup rich in vitamin C that was popular for bottle-feeding to babies. As a child in the 1950s I earned pocket money by picking the hips and sending them off to the city for this purpose.

A beautiful rose with healthful benefits. I wonder what that syrup tasted like? I've been trying the hips on some of my roses. My favorite so far is R. spinosissima, but I have a form of dog rose, R. uncinella, and I'm looking forward to sampling the hips next year. Perhaps even experimenting with making rose hip tea.

I have a feeling that it is not R. canina (Dog Rose) that has naturalised in the south island, but R. eglanteria (sweet Briar) that has gone feral. I don't really know how to tell the difference between the two, apart from the distinctive apple perfume from the leaves of R. eglanteria when the air is moist.

Having had a quick tour of the internet via Google, I think you may well be right, Patricia. There does seem to be a great deal of confusion between the two, though. When googling for images of R. canina, I found a photo of the thorns, which were quite different from the thorns on R. eglanteria (or R. rubiginosa 'Eglantera' as it seems may be be more correct). Also, I note on HMF that an alternative name for R. eglantera is 'Te Mihanere', which is unmistakably a Maori language name, suggesting the species has been endemic in New Zealand for a long time. Also, I have often heard our NZ plant referred to as 'sweet briar'. On the other hand, I've never noticed an apple fragrance, even though I grew up with these plants around. On balance, I think it is most likely R. eglanteria.